Albert Sidney Burleson

Burleson, Albert Sidney (bûrˈləsən) [key], 1863–1937, U.S. Postmaster General (1913–21), b. San Marcos, Tex.; grandson of Edward Burleson. He was a lawyer of Austin, Tex., and a member of the U.S. House of Representatives (1899–1913) before resigning to take a cabinet post under President Wilson. His methods of administering communications in World War I angered many: businessmen, who charged him with inefficiency and interference with private business; labor unions, because he forbade strikes of postal employees; and liberals, whose antiwar periodicals he banned from the mails. Burleson continued to exercise strict control and to advocate government ownership of communications. In 1918 he established airmail service.